Iraqis Protest Raid on Bahraini Cleric’s House

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Scores of members of Iraq’s al-Sadr political movement held protest rallies in front of Bahrain’s embassy in Baghdad on Saturday to vent anger on the Bahraini regime forces' recent raid on the house of top Shiite cleric Ayatollah Sheikh Issa Ahmed Qassem.

Demonstrators condemned the raid on Sheikh Qassem’s house as “an attempt by the Bahraini regime to silence the popular uprising,” Alsumaria news channel reported.

The rally came after Bahraini security forces raided the house of Ayatollah Qassem on November 24. Witnesses say regime forces even took photos of the ID cards of everyone who was inside the house in Diraz, west of the capital Manama.

The raid came just a few days after people voted in a referendum held by the opposition parties of Bahrain.

An overwhelming majority of the voters voted yes in the referendum which asked them, “Do you agree that your fate is decided with the election of new political establishment in Bahrain with the United Nations monitoring?”

The opposition had boycotted the parliamentary elections which were held with a low turnout on the same day across the tiny Persian Gulf kingdom.

Since mid-February 2011, thousands of protesters have held demonstrations in the streets of Bahrain, calling on the Al Khalifa royal family to step down from power. The protesters have also slammed the Manama regime’s arrest and torture of political activists.

Many Bahrainis have been killed and hundreds injured and arrested in the ongoing crackdown on peaceful demonstrations.